i have a neko dac hooked up to BHSE. I also have electrocompaniet ecd-2 which have USB input. I vastly preferred the neko thats why i go for converter. I tried nothing short of Meitner MA-1 DAC on my system and still it cannot compared to the Neko on my setup. It maybe not the last word in terms of resolution but the analog feelings simply not there with all the DAC I've tried. And Neko is launched during the time of USB dacs starts to pop up.

We are in the world of audiophile, sometimes convenience did not exist......Also CMIIW, USB implementation in audio still behind vs SPDIF, but thats another discussion again

Yes, and that's what I meant by obsolete, instead of buying a soundcard and using its SPDIF output you went with a USB/SPDIF converter instead, because your preferred DAC has no USB input. I'm sure there are USB DACs that would be far better than the Neko DAC in your system, especially considering the incredible amount of new DACs on the market lately, but I understand perfectly well why you would rather stick to what you think is more synergistic and buy a converter - it's what I did myself after all.

Ok guys, thanks for your thoughts. No need to argue, really, as everyone had a valid point to make and is just a matter of different perspectives. Now let's see what everybody things about these proposed specs on the dedicated desktop:

I believe it is still overkill for my purposes, but something I can readily get locally. Of course, if there's something way wrong with it (either missing or superfluous excess) would you guys kindly point it out to me? Many thanks again!

Ok guys, thanks for your thoughts. No need to argue, really, as everyone had a valid point to make and is just a matter of different perspectives. Now let's see what everybody things about these proposed specs on the dedicated desktop:

I believe it is still overkill for my purposes, but something I can readily get locally. Of course, if there's something way wrong with it (either missing or superfluous excess) would you guys kindly point it out to me? Many thanks again!

I would go with different RAM. Id pick from Mushkin, G. Skill, Corsair, or Kingston.

That PSU is not going to be silent. Claims of 'silent fans' rarely are, even if they're not too loud, it'll come through the audio signal. If you use the stock CPU cooler it's also not going to be silent.

Baring a heat exchanger to cool the thing, what would conceptually be quieter, a laptop? If so, which type/specs? I thought the desktop would be quieter than the laptop given the latter's crammed up limited space for the heat producing components.

A desktop will be quieter, but any fan introduced will still bring noise, which is why I suggested a fanless CPU cooler and a fanless PSU. That being said, between the build you proposed above and a laptop, the build above is still likely to be quieter.

Baring a heat exchanger to cool the thing, what would conceptually be quieter, a laptop? If so, which type/specs? I thought the desktop would be quieter than the laptop given the latter's crammed up limited space for the heat producing components.

I'm back to square one here. Thanks.

Then maybe it's time to go do more research and ask questions in a more appropriate forum. This is a headphone website forum devoted to computer audio, right? If you want to learn about this, try a network streaming forum. For instance, maybe you should be looking at a third option--an NAS. But talk with those guys. At least there you probably won't have some guy telling you to buy Windows XP (LOL).

But I will tell you that laptops are not designed and built to be run 24/7 as a server for years at a time. And if something breaks, it could be very expensive (or difficult) to repair/replace. Even a home made desktop machine can work better in that regard. I had an old basic desktop with minimal cooling, a basic Intel motherboard, and a wimpy CPU fan that, to my surprise, ran for five years as an active web server that handled a busy website. It was constantly working. I doubt a laptop would have achieved that.

Good points. I was not aware of waterless fanless options, for example. These achieve the object through heat exchange surfaces using a fin radiator array.. Looks interesting, except for the cost. Is it worth it? Too complicated to assemble? I need to consider this path more thoroughly.

BTW, I was not complaining about going to square one. I'm happy to learn about new options. The reason why I ask here is because, like me, this forum is made up of people ultimately interested in sound but also have lives to live, so I figure the options would be sustainable, if you know what I mean.

I would say it is worth it for the CPU, since the USB ports are going to be fairly close to the CPU and on the same board, having a fanless cooler on there will mean that much less vibrations. It's likely to be what makes the biggest difference in audible noise. Assembly wise its just like any other cooler, while watercooling can be annoying, fanless won't be much of a change assembly wise.

The fanless PSU probably less so if you can isolate it somewhat, maybe by setting the fan PSU on rubber so the vibrations from the fan are dampened you'd get better results.

I think you might get good results buying a cheap case, stripping it of fans, and dampening it with rubber on critical parts so as to minimize vibration. It would certainly be cheap enough to warrant trying it.

here's refurbished w510 @$300 incl keyboard dock. exactly the same config as what i'm using now. i use foobar on it solely for transport. sometimes i took it out of the dock and use it as a tablet if i wanted to watch movies in the bed. hook it up with external HDD and you're all set. No fan, no moving parts in the notebook itself

here's refurbished w510 @$300 incl keyboard dock. exactly the same config as what i'm using now. i use foobar on it solely for transport. sometimes i took it out of the dock and use it as a tablet if i wanted to watch movies in the bed. hook it up with external HDD and you're all set. No fan, no moving parts in the notebook itself

It is indeed. I'm just not familiar with tablets. Wouldn't the ext HDD operation triggered by the w510 be jitter/noise prone? If not, this brings a whole new dimension to my quest, as a simple tablet hooked to an ext HDD is as simple as it can be. For music only applications, are there possible tradeoffs involved with a tablet as there must be for general computation/multitasking use?

Better still, combining a music file batch load onto a small SSD hooked to the Tablet just for the session and eventually renew/modify that assortment for the next listening session always sourced from an external HDD that is connected only when renewing the batch. This would eliminate any possible noises from the HDD getting into the sound. Possible?

Could one look for non-touch screen alternatives to the tablet concept in order to save on sophistication? Would it support Win 7 (hate Win 8)? More important, would it support Foobar-WASAPI event mode? Could it provide USB 2.0 std ports to connect with my USB DAC?

These may seem dumb questions as I need yet to read about Tablets. I'm an old fart. Thanks!

Yes there will be noise, but I would think somewhat less than having the HDD be in the same case - so it's a good tradeoff. For music playback you really won't have a problem using a tablet over a desktop, music playback (even of big lossless files) isn't demanding enough that a tablet can't handle it.